you know of who I speak

[threeplusfire]

Most fucked up thing of the day: seeing the lovely Pro-Anorexia community, complete with a jack ass post about how someone wants to be as thin as a House Elf. Gods above, I hope that was just a nicely twisted joke. The whoel thing is rather creepy, a combination of people with genuine sadness, and that moronic brand of folk who write as if they've learned language from AOL chatrooms.

Comments

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

The pro-eating disorder community is real. It's all over the net these days, and it's starting to be picked up in major media as well. It's strange, but perhaps not so unexpected as we would like to think. It's about power, control, the body image, and all those things. In some ways, not too dissimilar than other body modification movements.

But yeah, I find it creepy and sad.

[calledmara.livejournal.com]

salon.com had a really good article on this whole phenomenon maybe 6 months ago. I'm to lazy to find it, but if you search pro-ana or something similar on the site it should come up. It was balanced and not reactionary/disgusted which it seems might be the norm. Not to say the author agreed with the people in these communities, just tried to understand what they were thinking in their malnourished little heads

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I think I remember reading it, and that being part of what set me off around the net trying to figure out this thing.

It's difficult you know, where one one hand I want to take these girls home and beat some sense into them, and on the other hand I wish I could provide some great pithy piece of wisdom that would inspire them to climb out of that mentality.

[neflhim.livejournal.com]

Being rather on the other end of the scales (that's me on the left in the pic), I was once with OA. I left because I disagreed with the methods they use. Anyway, this is not a 'body modification' thing. That's tattoos, piercings, and so on. This is an illness, and the people are sick.

Reading a bit, there are people on 100+hr fasts, planning 25 day fasts, not eating for a week, and so on. This is so unhealthy it is not believable. I really fear for them, since the effects are so far reaching. Their minds are more at risk than their bodies.

Hopefully they will get the help they need, and live past 21.

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Somewhere I have an excellent essay by a doctor named Favazza that talks about how self mutilation, piercings, self imposed starvation, serious weight lifting, tattoos, permanent makeup and a number of other things can all be considered body modifications in a socio-anthropological perspective. Interesting stuff, really. On one end of the spectrum we have very superficial things, llike clothes and hair dyes and make up. On the other end, plastic surgery, piercings and such. I find the psychology of the whole thing fascinating.

But none of those kids has a decent, thought out reason for doing what they are doing. It's fear and cultural bad wiring and such things. There's a hell of a difference between a woman who is slender because she fasts for spiritual reasons on a regular basis, and this sort of thing. They're doing stuff without any thought about the consequences or the dangers. Idiots.